E3 Is Sold Out But That’s Okay

The Electronic Entertainment Expo switched things up this year with its tickets. It’s not the first time E3 has offered general admission tickets, but 2017 marks the first time that the expo has opened its doors to the average Joe on such a large scale.

Unfortunately, for those hopeful few who had dreams of walking the halls of the Los Angeles Convention Center and rubbing shoulders with their favorite developers, these tickets flew out of their digital wickets and into the hands of someone else. Yes, that’s right: tickets are sold out and you aren’t going.

An initial set of 1,000 early bird tickets went on sale on February 13 for $149, with the remaining 14,000 tickets set at $249. As you can imagine, these tickets practically vanished instantaneously, as the general admission passes sold out within a single day.

For those lucky enough to nab one before they disappeared, you’ll be given access to the show floor and special events. Unfortunately these tickets do not extend access to exclusive press conferences or media-only events.

Tickets to FanFest promise a more exclusive experience of E3, with access to Microsoft’s press conference, its gaming campus, as well as the expo’s show floor. But we have more bad news. You missed your chance, as no more tickets remain. FanFest tickets were raffled off by Microsoft to 500 lucky individuals back in April, so only an exclusive number of the Xbox Nation will have the privilege of attending E3. If it’s any consolation, you’re technically in the majority of non-ticket holders.

Disappointing though it may be, it’s not entirely a terrible fate to experience E3 through the eyes of the media. From your spot on the couch, E3 seems like the mecca of the gaming world—and it no doubt is—but you miss out on all of the real-world realities of a conference of its size. Last year saw roughly 50,000 people stuffed into the LACC, and it’s expected to have similar attendance. You’d be spending a lot of your time trying to move through these hot, stinky crowds.

There’s also the issue of accessibility. Unless you’re one of the elite who have in their hands a FanFest ticket, you simply won’t have the access that you want. Your general admission ticket doesn’t really get you anywhere. All those games you were promised you could play, are often demos played by the developers. You’ll also find a lot of doors closed, as you won’t be able to sit in on any press conference or follow the media into exclusive rooms revealing the most anticipated games.

Though it’s far less exciting, it’s a far better way to experience the expo. You can set up an RSS feed on the latest news coming from L.A., so you can catch each update, video, and stream as they’re uploaded.

And just think of what you could do with the cost of a ticket. You could invest in a brand new headset to help you get the drop on enemies, or you could install a modest home theater system to flesh out any game.

You could customize the look of your console by designing a set of Xbox skins. In fact, your system’s wardrobe would rival your own when you look through the selection at dbrand. dbrand has tons of Xbox One skins that come at reasonable price points.

Or you could wait until some of the games featured at E3 come out and update your library. Between Detroit: Become Human, Red Dead Redemption 2, and everything in between, we’re willing to bet there are quite a few titles you’re waiting to try out.

With general admission tickets sold out, you can forget about attending this year’s E3. But let’s face it—unless you’re a developer or a part of the media, you wouldn’t really experience the expo in its true sense. You’d be stuck attempting to navigate the halls at a zombie-like crawl, and the only thing to tide you over would be demos you could have watched from home.

In a way, you’re lucky you dodged that bullet. You’ll save a bit of money (or spend the cost of a ticket on important accessories), and you’ll still be able to stay on top of the latest E3 updates — all from the comfort of your home.